1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to integrated circuits, and more particularly but not exclusively to switches for electronic devices.
2. Description of the Background Art
Switches are employed in electronic devices to connect and disconnect an input power supply to a load. These switches are typically employed in removable circuit cards (e.g., add-on boards), hot-swap storage devices, and other applications involving connection of an input power supply to a load. A typical switch in such applications has a terminal connected to the input power supply and an opposing terminal connected to the load. As a particular example, the switch can be used to allow a hot-swap disk drive (the load in this example) to receive power from a power supply by way of a disk drive bay or motherboard. The switch can be implemented using a power transistor. The gate of the power transistor can be tied to a capacitor, which charges during startup. Once fully charged, the capacitor keeps the power transistor ON to allow the load to continuously receive the power supply voltage.